LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[Niftybox]

I'm quite impressed with the growth of the skyline, it's really starting to lengthen and will fill a much wider swatch of the enormous basin, will be interesting to see it from Griffith Observatory in a few years. However I am a little disappointed that so many flat top buildings are still in the pipeline, I thought once they helicopter ordinance was removed architects would have taken advantage, oh well , we'll see.

[Mojeda101]

Originally Posted by ThebiteofSuarez

I took a pic on Thanksgiving Day of roughly the same location.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/136978864@N04/49225805987/

The Vancouver style architecture is starting to make it's presence known.

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by Mojeda101

The Vancouver style architecture is starting to make it's presence known.

It's more of a Chinese architecture as many Chinese firms built in Vancouver but yes those 3 buildings near Staples are the Oceanwide project, they are Chinese owned. And it has uncanny resemblance to many high rises in Vancouver and Chinese cities.

[colemonkee]

Funny we call it "Chinese" architecture, because all of the architects are US-based, with the exception of Chris Dikeakos, who's based in Vancouver.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by caligrad

If downtown can get Oceanwide completed and everything in the "Proposed" list completed, I feel that will be the "Eureka!" moment we've all been waiting for. LA is already a "worthy" North American city. Before 2010, skylines weren't (and still aren't) what make a city. London, Paris, Moscow and others barely had any skylines if you looked back a decade, yet they were/are considered global power houses just as LA.

I know, I'm not saying that it makes a city but it's a nice bonus. It'd be nice for LA to hold its own against other huge North American cities in that regard, there are so many proposals on the front page, but I feel like we rarely ever hear anything from them after they're proposed.

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by colemonkee

Funny we call it "Chinese" architecture, because all of the architects are US-based, with the exception of Chris Dikeakos, who's based in Vancouver.

Well, calling it Vancouver architecture is equally as funny. Look at Hong Kong and you see dozens of these structures and they're much older than Vancouver, regardless, it's off-topic.

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

I know, I'm not saying that it makes a city but it's a nice bonus. It'd be nice for LA to hold its own against other huge North American cities in that regard, there are so many proposals on the front page, but I feel like we rarely ever hear anything from them after they're proposed.

The problem with LA's skyline, well more-so the area it sits is the size of it's surroundings. LA has some of the most sprawl of any major city so the skyline is dwarfed by the immense basin. However, LA has the potential in the distant future to have one of the biggest skylines on Earth. As displayed in many sci-fi futuristic films (Blade Runner, Her etc).

However to more directly address your concerns, somebody on Skyscrapercity posted a rendering of what LA's skyline might look like if all of the proposed projects are completed on-time. Albeit it's quite optimistic to assume every project goes through let alone finishes on-time, but awesome to see.

2015

2025


Some of the buildings like the Wilshire are smaller than they should be in the rendering, it's obviously a very simple interpretation.

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Niftybox

However to more directly address your concerns, somebody on Skyscrapercity posted a rendering of what LA's skyline might look like if all of the proposed projects are completed on-time. Albeit it's quite optimistic to assume every project goes through let alone finishes on-time, but awesome to see.

Nothing (not a lot at least) in LA ever gets built though, that's the problem, if all the current proposals go through LA might be a third of Chicago, which is a third of New York, but they won't.

[ChelseaFC]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Nothing (not a lot at least) in LA ever gets built though, that's the problem, if all the current proposals go through LA might be a third of Chicago, which is a third of New York, but they won't.

Big, if true.

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Nothing (not a lot at least) in LA ever gets built though, that's the problem, if all the current proposals go through LA might be a third of Chicago, which is a third of New York, but they won't.

It's not always about the number of skyscrapers that make a skyline greater than another but the placement of the skyscrapers that make a bigger impact. Sure numbers matter but if they're strategically placed for aesthetic reasons it can be maximized. So 1/9 of NYC could still rival it if it's good looking enough. Most people I run across prefer Chicago's skyline to NYC, myself included. Many of NYC's skyscrapers are lost in the sea of buildings and shapes are hard to make out because most of the smaller ones are totally lost in the clutter and basically invisible.

[Clinton Robinson]

Really nice shot of DTLA... looks all clean too right after the rains. Bout time LA starts to SERIOUSLY embrace its core and build some nice highrises, more importantly that people themselves love to be there all through out the day! I remember when Downtown was a complete urban cancer, a wasteland! It's like a before and after commercial for a plastic surgeon. The entire city of LA is SO much nicer than in the 80's and especially the 90's...

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by Clinton Robinson

Really nice shot of DTLA... looks all clean too right after the rains. Bout time LA starts to SERIOUSLY embrace its core and build some nice highrises, more importantly that people themselves love to be there all through out the day! I remember when Downtown was a complete urban cancer, a wasteland! It's like a before and after commercial for a plastic surgeon. The entire city of LA is SO much nicer than in the 80's and especially the 90's...

Amen, remember the smog?

[Zapatan]

Originally Posted by Niftybox

It's not always about the number of skyscrapers that make a skyline greater than another but the placement of the skyscrapers that make a bigger impact. Sure numbers matter but if they're strategically placed for aesthetic reasons it can be maximized. So 1/9 of NYC could still rival it if it's good looking enough. Most people I run across prefer Chicago's skyline to NYC, myself included. Many of NYC's skyscrapers are lost in the sea of buildings and shapes are hard to make out because most of the smaller ones are totally lost in the clutter and basically invisible.

Totally agree about placement, which is why I prefer Chicago or Hong Kong to pretty much anywhere else, but size and height do matter.

Obviously LA has other things going for it besides skyscrapers, so it's all good, but it'd be nice to see some of these proposals become a reality, or maybe a real tallest building.

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by Zapatan

Totally agree about placement, which is why I prefer Chicago or Hong Kong to pretty much anywhere else, but size and height do matter.

Obviously LA has other things going for it besides skyscrapers, so it's all good, but it'd be nice to see some of these proposals become a reality, or maybe a real tallest building.

LA already has a great prominent skyline, most skylines have much smaller buildings and if LA had shorter skyscrapers the downtown skyline would actually appear larger because the surrounding Hollywood and Broadway 10-20 story buildings would appear taller and stand out more. So LA has to continue to build a lot of tall buildings (+35 stories) to make the downtown section not swallow them whole.

[liat91]

Originally Posted by Niftybox

The problem with LA's skyline, well more-so the area it sits is the size of it's surroundings. LA has some of the most sprawl of any major city so the skyline is dwarfed by the immense basin. However, LA has the potential in the distant future to have one of the biggest skylines on Earth. As displayed in many sci-fi futuristic films (Blade Runner, Her etc).

However to more directly address your concerns, somebody on Skyscrapercity posted a rendering of what LA's skyline might look like if all of the proposed projects are completed on-time. Albeit it's quite optimistic to assume every project goes through let alone finishes on-time, but awesome to see.

2015

2025


Some of the buildings like the Wilshire are smaller than they should be in the rendering, it's obviously a very simple interpretation.

Wow, would I love to see that from more angles. What Hollywood would look like would be another bonus.

Does that photo include Westlake additions as well?

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Clinton Robinson

I remember when Downtown was a complete urban cancer, a wasteland! It's like a before and after commercial for a plastic surgeon. The entire city of LA is SO much nicer than in the 80's and especially the 90's...

Younger ppl don't realize how the city really fell apart following things like the 92 riots, the 94 northridge quake, the recession in the yrs after the decline of aerospace, loss of local hollywood TV & movie making. the city still shows lingering effects of some of that.

that on top of burbanization that dates back over 50 yrs, when dtla first started showing signs of a long downturn.

I was in dt a few wks ago & the focus on things like the height of bldgs....or how dtla looks from 5 or 10 miles away....really gets lost in the shuffle. the main thing the stands out is how many storefronts are vacant or struggling, or no better than swapmeets. NYC has the same problem with a lot of vacant stores. Homeless ppl, litter, dirty broken down sidewalks & parking lots that are still parking lots 20 yrs after the fact put a damper on the hood.

So when you're actually in dt, looking at it from close up, issues like the height, scale, design of bldgs start to fade into the background. That's the time when the number of ppl....or lack of enough ppl....in various restaurants or small stores, or filling apt or office bldgs begins to stand out.

But dtla today is a far cry from where it was not even more than 5 yrs ago. however, gaps like the unfinished oceanwide proj or the parking lots around 9th west of fig continue to be weak spots.

but it's much better than when this land of tumbleweeds existed.....



usc libraries

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by ThebiteofSuarez

I took a pic on Thanksgiving Day of roughly the same location.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/136978864@N04/49225805987/

Thanks for that

[Niftybox]

Originally Posted by liat91

Wow, would I love to see that from more angles. What Hollywood would look like would be another bonus.

Does that photo include Westlake additions as well?

Well there's a daytime shot of a sort of different angle that's a little uglier and it shows the projects he incorporated into the render but not that different, feel free to peruse the thread. https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=154183124

[Clinton Robinson]

Really well put in your response to my post citywatch you articulated what you shared so well! I totally agree with what you said... I wanted to say also that in reguards to which skyline perspective has been changed quite a bit is that from the 710 in between the 105 and 5/605...

[liat91]

LA has improved for sure. Since the first time I was there in 1998. More traffic but the improvement of the skyline is impressive as well as the future potential.

NYC has vacancies, but compared to 1988, you gotta be kidding. I’m certainly not complaining after a visit over the weekend.

If LA builds half of what’s in that picture, it will be momentous. I do agree that Oceanwide needs to get done sooner than later.